Color Me Upscale, Lee Genes

Color Me Upscale
Two new shops are taking paint and wallpaper shopping to luxury-boutique heights. Colori Chicago (2243 W. North Ave., 773-252-4923; colori-chicago.com) is a sleek premium paint “bar,” where you can plop your color-weary self down near one of four light boxes that simulate natural and artificial light and pick your color from a spectrum created by designers for designers. The high-end paint is from C2, the brushes are Corona, and the 18-by-24-inch paint chips represent colors in actual paint, not ink. The other big name coming to our parts is Farrow & Ball (105-B Merchandise Mart; www.farrow-ball.com), which also carries premium paints and more than 700 styles of traditional dragged, striped, and block-printed wallpapers.

The Arc sofa, from La Collection Salon

Lee Genes
Gary Lee, one of the city’s most respected interior designers, has opened Venu, a River North showroom featuring his own line of furniture. His debut, La Collection Salon, features sofas, tables, and chairs that have “overriding lines of modernism with French and Asian influences,” says Lee, adding that he’s proudest of the chairs. “The thing that’s most difficult to achieve is a chair profile that’s beautiful to look at and comfortable to sit in, so it’s kind of like the mantra for the collection.” Prices range from less than $1,000 for small tables and chairs up to $6,000 for sofas and cabinets. Available through interior designers. Venu, 360 W. Superior St., 312-440-9991; venu.com
—Nikki Hopewell

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